stand your ground. yes? no?

[spin]

18. If a "stand your ground" law is properly written ....

the person claiming it as a defense has to have good reason to fear for his/her life. At one time the Florida web page on concealed carry used an example to show the improper use of a concealed firearm for self defense. It's no longer on that page but I'll sum it up.

Two neighbors get into a argument. One who was watering his grass when the argument started attacks the other by swinging his hose at his head. The person being attacked pulls his concealed handgun and shoots the other. He as in the wrong as an attack with a water hose is not something that a rational man standing in the shoes of the armed neighbor would have considered life threatening.

You can view the current page at http://licgweb.doacs.state.fl.us/weapons/self_defense.html

If a "stand your ground" law was properly written it would allow you to use your firearm for self defense if you started an argument -- only if you could prove that you made a sincere effort to withdraw from the confrontation before the violence started. There would be little exception.You would face charges if you started an argument with the intention of goading another person into attacking you and then shot him.

Assume you were a physically fit male and during an argument another physically fit male you were punched in the face. That alone would not justify the use of your firearm to defend yourself. If however your opponent had kicked your ass and you no longer were trying to fight but he persisted in beating or kicking you, you might have legal justification to use lethal force. You can be seriously injured or killed by blows and kicks while not resisting. Of course if you defeated your opponent using martial arts skills such as karate or boxing, you should stop fighting when he is incapacitated or surrenders. That also applies to what would happen after you legally shot an attacker in self defense and he was lying on the ground and no longer attacking you. You can't walk up to him and execute him with a shot to the head. Once the threat to your health or life is gone, so is your right to use lethal force.

Of course the biggest problem with any self defense law is what happens when two people have an encounter without witnesses and one ends up dead. Only the survivor gets to tell his story and lacking solid evidence that his story is false, there is an excellent chance that he will walk. Dead men tell no tales.

I will agree that it is usually unwise to fire your legally concealed handgun at a street shooters who are not targeting you. Obviously blazing away at a car just after the occupants had committed a drive-by shooting endangers others unnecessarily. Better to observe and render aid. Suppose you witness two men running down the street and one is firing a handgun at the other. You don't know if the shooter is an undercover cop chasing a very dangerous suspect.

A number of states have had "stand your ground" laws long enough now that we can evaluate how well they work. Some egregious examples have occurred where a loophole in the law allowed a murderer to walk free. Rewriting these laws would help to eliminate this problem.